His [President Warren G. Harding’s] speeches left the im­pres­sion of an army of pompous phrases mov­ing over the land­scape in search of an idea; some­times these me­an­der­ing words would ac­tu­ally cap­ture a strag­gling thought and bear it tri­umphantly as a pris­oner in their midst, un­til it died of servi­tude and over­work.